How Many People Have OCD?

How Many People Have OCD? (1:11)

Many people with obsessive-compulstive disorder (OCD) never get treatment because of taboos about mental illness, says psychiatrist Wayne Goodman, MD, of The Mount Sinai Medical Center.

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[MUSIC] It is estimated that somewhere between 1 to 3% of the population suffers from OCD at some point in their life time. My guess is there are many patients with OCD who have gone untreated, and one of the reasons is that often patients with OCD are reluctant to seek treatment.

This are individuals who may have very disturbing thoughts some of which may be very embarrassing, behaviors that may seem bizarre to other people. And they're actually afraid to divulge it. I've seeing patients who have hidden their symptoms from their spells for 20 years because they were afraid that the spells will think they were crazy.

Whether they can be really afraid to see a psychiatrist like me because I might diagnose them as having a mental illness. So I think there are a number of patients out there who suffer from OCD who are reluctant to seek treatment or may not know what they have [MUSIC].